In a broad sense, business ethics addresses the rights and responsibilities of public administrators as "stewards" to the public. It deals with the moral choices that must be made in the completion of day-to-day duties and it sets out general accountability standards for managers, employees and other officials. In 1990, Terry Cooper devised a method for thinking through the alternatives and consequences of ethical decisions. Cooper's model is a sequential and logical approach to decision-making.

Describing the Ethical Problem

Cooper notes that ethical problems often are first presented as fragmented or distorted stories. All of the nuances and consequences of the problem are rarely known in the beginning. However managers and administrators are in a better position to potentially address ethical issues when concerns are vocalized instead of swept under the rug. Employees should, for example, be encouraged by their superiors to talk about any concerns they are experiencing, even if those concerns seem trivial.

Defining the Problem

Once an ethical problem has been vocalized, managers can work toward defining the problem. This means examining the underlying issues that perhaps aren't being addressed vocally. Often, ethical problems involve more than one issue. They can encompass behaviours, attitudes, organizational culture challenges and other concerns. All ethical situations differ and any practical approach to dealing with the issues must try to take into account any inconsistencies between what the problem appears to be and what it actually is.

Courses of Action and Consequences

After gathering as much information about the ethical problem as possible, managers can move on to identifying all of the possible courses of action in response. It is important that all ideas, even those that may seem initially implausible, are discussed. Sometimes the solution to an ethical problem hasn't been tried before. At this stage, the pros and cons of each solution also should be worked out. The positive and negative consequences of solutions can help to businesses to imagine how their workflow will either be strengthened or weakened by solving the issues.

Balancing the Elements

According to Cooper, the ideal solution to any ethical problem will be on the balance of four elements. Moral rules are the basic standards that ought to be attributed to the alternatives and consequences. If something is illegal or impractical, it shouldn't be implemented. The second element is the "rehearsal of defenses," which is an assessment of how the alternative solutions align with the company's values, its organizational culture and the wider industry in which it operates. Thirdly, in assessing ethical problems, it might become clear that some values are in competition. A company may find, for instance, that security of the database and privacy of information are being butted against a viable request for personnel information. Cooper says that in this case the organization should create a hierarchy of moral rules that can influence the final decision. Finally, the manager or business must not forget the aftermath of the ethical decision. Thinking about how people will react is an important part of choosing the satisfactory alternative.